West End to Green Turtle Cay

If I were to describe the Bahamas with one word, it would be “colorful”. From the color of the water, the sky, the flowers, and the houses, there is beautiful color everywhere.  The first color we noticed, and the Bahamas is known for, is the water.  Bob called me outside when we were nearing the Bahamas to see the color of the water change. I mentioned before how the depth changed dramatically, and so too did the water color.  The next thing I noticed was the colorful buildings at West End.  This turned out to be consistent throughout our travels so far.  One of my friends jokingly asked if painting a house white would be considered a crime!  The third difference took me awhile to pin point as we traveled along the coast lines of the the islands.  I knew something was different about the houses we were seeing and it wasn’t just the style of the homes (there is a distinctive Bahamian style).  It finally dawned on me that all the roofs are white!  In a land of color, the white roofs reflect the heat off the homes.  Quite startling in the bright sunshine as we cruise along.

If you look closely you can see the pastel colors of the buildings, but from a distance in the bright sunlight, all is white, white, white!

When we arrived in West End, there were only a few boats in the marina. It looked a lot different that evening – full of boats! We left West End after just one night in order to get to Green Turtle Cay’s protective harbor before the next blow arrived. In the middle of the picture you can see Blue Yonder III pulling out to follow us.

Judy, in turn, got a picture of us under way. Bob is huddled over to the side of the fly bridge to escape the heat of the sun. Notice our wake spreading out to the side as we move through the water.

The water is shallow and clear but we are surprised at the lack of sea life.

Sometimes it was hard to see the difference between water and sky.

We spent our second night in the Bahamas anchored off of Great Sale Cay.  This is a popular anchoring spot with several protected bays.  There were many of us anchored here as well as our new friends Judy and Mike on Blue Yonder III and Glenn and Lois on Ensenel.

We all took our first swim in the clear water of the Bahamas shortly after we arrived.

Bob is wearing a “skin” not a wet suit.  This is to protect him from sunburn as well as accidentally brushing again something irritating like coral or a jelly fish. (We didn’t see either here)

We found a few shells here and there but not much on our first swim other than we are here and have broken in our new snorkel gear. 
There was an exquisite sunset to rival the sunrise we saw on our way to the Bahamas. As we watched we heard at least two conch shells being blown to celebrate the sunset.  Later we found out one of them was blown by Glenn on Ensenel.

After dinner both couples dinghied over to play some games and get to know each other.  We love to find out the history behind boat names and Ensenel did not disappoint.  Glenn and Lois have two sons – Ben and Ken, so all the men in their family are “ens” and Lois is the “L”.  Glenn catches nearly a fish a day out here without a fishing rod!  He rigs up a spool with a line and a fancy combination of bungee cord and rubber band, then throws the line in the water behind the boat with a hook and bait to trail behind the boat as they cruise.  The rubber band breaks when a fish bites and they haul it in!  They have caught a Wahoo and a barracuda so far.
The three of us all headed to Green Turtle Cay the next morning along with the rest of the world too!  We have never traveled with so many boats at once.  The theme here is to get somewhere safe before the next blow hits.
This boat passed us during the voyage.  Ursula Minor is a ocean going motor sailer.  Their son likes to ride in the crows nest.  He enjoyed posing for me.

Lunch time brought him down though! Forgive the sideways video, I can’t figure out how to rotate it.

I love how you can see through their bow wave in this clear water.

We arrived at Green Turtle Cay and many of the boats including Ensenel entered “White Sound” where there are two marinas. Most of the rest of us went on to “Black Sound” where there are several more marinas, mooring balls, and anchorages.  We opted for a marina as we weren’t sure how the strong winds would affect the water in the harbor. 
Shortly after we docked, Judy popped over with a birthday present for me! What sweet friends we find!

The only thing that could make it better would be to be with my family!  Thanks, Judy!!


Tomorrow – exploring Green Turtle Cay

Anchored Great Sale Cay, Bahamas – 2/17/18 with Ensenel and Blue Yonder III – game night on The Good Life
Docked Leeward Yacht Club, Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas 2/18-2/24/18